Death by Bureaucrat

You think the EU is a bureaucratic monster? Try the People's Republic of China for size:

China now has 46 million government bureaucrats, new statistics revealed yesterday, a number almost as great as the entire population of England.

While the country is used to outdoing the rest of the world for sheer numbers, the explosion in officialdom is alarming its ruling Communist Party.

Its excessive and corrupt bureaucracy was regarded as one of the principal causes of the decline of imperial rule. Yet there are now 35 times as many people on the government payroll, even as a proportion of the population, than at the time of the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911. Corruption aside, today's civil servants are also expensive, requiring official cars, holidays masquerading as training sessions and receptions.

Those worried about China's "unparalleled economic growth" can rest somewhat easier upon reading this. The bureaucracy inherent in any good communist state is in full force, even if communism isn't. I can't wait for the Chinese leaders to try and reduce this number drastically. It will cause no small amount of problems in China along the way, and I must admit that I will fully enjoy watching from the sidelines. Of course, they could choose to ignore it. In which case it will likely slowly strangle their economy over time. Perhaps time is on our side after all?